The FICP Forum 2009 was held on 5 th May 2009 at the Swissotel Merchant Court Singapore. One of the objectives of this forum was to provide opportunities for discussion on the changing role of banking and financial services industry, understanding new imperatives for competitiveness in the post-crisis era as well as identifying opportunities for financial institutions in Singapore .

Mr Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain and keynote speaker for the event, shared his insights on the topic of “Implications and Opportunities of the Evolving Financial Landscape”. He shared on how the global financial crisis had affected the Gulf Cooperation Council economies, which had significant impact on the government revenues, balance of payments and also on the domestic liquidity. However, the Bahrain financial system has withstood the shocks of the past 12 months relatively well as they attributed its strength to factors such as high levels of capitalization, strong shareholder support and generally conservative banking practices they have adopted over the years. He expected that there will be reduction in the scale of large global banks while in the emerging markets there are still economies of scale to be gained from further consolidation and from mergers between banks.

Mr Chris Hurd, Head of Global Banking, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, spoke on the topic of “Perspectives on Corporate and Investment Banking”.

Mr Loh Boon Chye, Managing Director, Head of Global Markets, Asia, Deutsche Bank AG, Singapore , shared on the topic of “Perspectives on Financial Markets”.

Mr Gerald Ong,Chief Executive Officer of PrimePartners Corporate Finance Group, spoke on the topic of “Perspectives on Corporate Finance”.

Mr Conor McCoole, Managing Director, Head of Project Finance, Asia, Standard Chartered Bank, shared on the topic of “Perspectives on Project Financing”.

The seminar ended with a plenary discussion moderated by Mr Conor McCoole which saw a lively discussion on a variety of interesting topics such as the opportunities in the derivative markets, remuneration structure and risk taking responsibilities and ways in which innovation could help shape the financial sector.